Nakamura-en #01: Gyokuro Mecha, The Discovery 玉露芽茶 Nakamura-en

A delicious discovery, an easy introduction to the world of gyokuro tea. Besides the amazingly savory umami flavor characteristic of gyokuro, ‘The Discovery’ is also extremely versatile releasing savory umami flavor at a much wider range of flavors than gyokuro tea itself.

Part of the secret is that this tea from Uji, Kyoto, selected by 3rd generation tea master Shuichi Nakamura, is simply very high quality leaf. The other part of the secret is the fact that it is ‘mecha’ 芽茶 usually defined to be the tips of the leaf that break off during production.

Product Info

• Ingredients: Green tea
• Harvest: Spring
• Notes: Shaded for about 3 weeks before harvest for the extra umami flavor for which gyokuro is known. After processing into dry leaf, the leaf tips of the leaves (that break off during the rolling process) are separated out to form this tea.
• Region: Kyoto

THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY

We actually went out of our way to find this tea after Sencha Tea Ceremony master Yukiko Hasue introduced us to this tea. Finding the century old Nakamura-en Tea Shop on the eastern side of Tokyo near the Sumo Wrestling Arena (Ryogoku station), we convinced Nakamura-san to let us carry this tea and share it with the world.

Nakamura-san does speak a bit of conversational English, so if you are ever in Tokyo do visit his shop!! He has no website though, so simply follow this simple map (GOOGLE MAP).